Static Test Fire #3
On Saturday, April 17th, our team successfully completed a static fire of our Preliminary Test Engine (PTE), reaching a thrust of 942 lbf which closely matched our design parameters. Despite all challenges faced during the ongoing pandemic, our team has made steady progress towards launching a liquid bi-propellant rocket to an altitude of 30,000 ft. The engine uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen as propellant.
Nozzle post-fire 
Avionics control box 
Pre-chilling system 
Filling propellant tanks
Mobile Test Stand
Our mobile test stand allows us to easily conduct liquid nitrogen cold flow tests on campus outside our lab. It also enables us to easily transport the stand to static test fires in Mojave. This mobile setup has reduced our static test fire time from 10 hours to 3 hours.
